“Beautiful, practical … and very authentic!”

It is one of the principles of the HMBIA Authenticity Committee. Its aim is to help participants of the Championship to comply with one of the main ideas of “Battle of the Nations.” Committee’s attention is focused on armor, weapons, clothing and life of festival participants.

The Committee begins its work long before “Battle of the Nations.” Authentic officers should check an application form of every participant (fighter or civilian), which means hundreds of photos of costumes, armor and weapons to encourage participants to improve their attire, or to inform them that certain items cannot be used. According to the authentic officers, this work is not very difficult, but at the same time, it’s not that simple.

Most participants of the Championship prepare for the tournament and life in authentic camps actively and meticulously.

- Carola Zakketti, a member of the HMBIA Authenticity Committee for “Battle of the Nations”-2014 (Italy):

“In my opinion, men and women showed the same level this year. I can not say who prepared better, men or women. The difference is that some participants showed really responsible attitude to the competition. There were participants whose costumes had some imperfection and mistakes from the historical point of view.”

Those who were particularly proud of their clothing, took part in the contest for the best authentic costume, which took place during the whole championship. The first prize in the category of the “Best Male authentic costume” was won by Serdiyan Obradovic from Serbia. He was inspired by a portrait, seen on a fresco in an ancient monastery.

“My costume is not new. I often use it in reenactment activities, so I did not have to work hard on it before the competition in Trogir. My clothing is sewn on the basis of a portrait of a medieval nobleman depicted on a medieval fresco in the Radenik monastery (1410) in my town of Aleksandrovach. The type of clothing is called kontush. It can be seen in some paintings and is described in written sources. But I have not finished it yet! I still need to finish underwear, decorate the costume with embroidery and gems. Concerning the costumes of the event’s participants, I can say that they were very diverse. Some outfits were obviously made without much effort. But there were really magnificent costumes. I think that one guy had gilded armor.”

It should be noted that the National Team of Serbia, which was represented at the competition by Serdiyan showed a very responsible approach to the issue of authenticity. Igor Cosic, captain of the Serbs, is seriously interested in history and medieval period. He is a member of a Serbian community of historical reenactment, whose main purpose is to recreate every aspect of life of medieval Serbia (1380-1410).

- Igor Cosic, captain of the National Team of Serbia:

“Using all available scientific methods we recreate all aspects of military and civil everyday life of Serbian Principality (late XIV – early XVth centuries.). Our armor, weapons, clothes, shoes, dishes are made in Serbia. Moreover, all the items are handmade. Taking into account all the points, I can confidently say that our team really represented our country.”

According to fighters, preparation process for living in an authentic camp is a real ritual. Due to the attention paid to small details, replacing the usual reality of the XXIst century by authentic medieval one is painless for the modern man and gives everyday life new colors.

And we want to add that every new “Battle of the Nations” shows an increase in the level of authenticity, but as they say, there is no limit to perfection…